Nitrates Control Opinions pls

[rkaragozler]

I really hope so, I hate putting chemicals in my tank

 

[homegrowncichlid]

is the fuge 40 gallons it self?? I also have 2 fuges running back to back 1 is 50 gallons the other is 30 gallons, and i keep a ton of macro algae,and a 4" sand bed in both, my dt has a 6" sand bed. my sump is separate from the fuge. maybe i need a bigger fuge????

I run a 65 gallon tank with a 38 gallon refugium. They are both 3 feet wide, and I stack them vertically on a iron frame stand.
The main tank is bare bottom, the refugium has 6" DSB and full of caulerpa, which I harvest every month.

 

[homegrowncichlid]

You can control your nitrates with an Aquaripure, but the more important thing is how are you going to keep your phosphates in check? There has to be balance.

If you can run a Phosban Reactor and a Denitrator you should be okay.

I agree that keeping a low bioload and not overfeeding works... but... I want many fish and they are hungry =X

It's weird, once I started running the aquipure denitrifier, the nitrates started going down (40-80ppm), and the phosphates (5-10ppm) along with it. Now that I've been using it for half a year, the nitrates are 0 but my phosphates are stable around 2ppm.
From the forums I've been reading about the aquipure, is that as the anerobic bacterial consume all the nitrates in the water, they also consume some phosphates. anyway, I'm using GFO in a mesh bag in the overflow box to control it.

 

[mbg75]

is the fuge 40 gallons it self?? I also have 2 fuges running back to back 1 is 50 gallons the other is 30 gallons, and i keep a ton of macro algae,and a 4" sand bed in both, my dt has a 6" sand bed. my sump is separate from the fuge. maybe i need a bigger fuge????

Rich, does your macro grow fast? Should be growing like a weed if your phos, and trates are high

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

 

[gatojebv]

I dont have nitrates problems because my tank is not up. I gave up my 180 last year and now I am setting up a 65 gallon.

My question has been answered. Today I visited a guy in Parsippany to give him a serpent star fish and he does not run anything but a phos reactor, RO and a mega skimmer. No calc reactor, no sulfur reactor and no other pain in the ass equipment.

He has a super reef in my opinion and has corals that I have seen others that swear is needed.

The only major thing that I noticed is that for filtration his sump is significantly larger than his display tank.

You go it. I VERY good skimmer, A refugium with cheato, phos reactor, live rock and water changes and be careful with too much feeding and that should do it. I have not tested nitrates in over 2 years. I have mostly SPS which are are thriving. I have a CA reactor becuase the demand on CA is high.

 

[d5332]

UPDATE...I purchased a running tank and transferred what I wanted to my 65....

I setup a refugium and macro. changing 20% weekly until macro and mangroves settle in.

Tank is doing fine and I dont intend on running a phos reactor yet, but I have one on standby.

I am shooting for natural this time around. Sold all my equipment, calc reactor, denitrator, etc...

And I no longer consider that dude in Parsippany to have a mega reef, what he has in a very nice setup of many tanks that allow him to grow out frags and his bio load is low so with what has to be 500 gallons or more of water some macro and mangroves work for him.

Thank you all for the feedback..

You go it. I VERY good skimmer, A refugium with cheato, phos reactor, live rock and water changes and be careful with too much feeding and that should do it. I have not tested nitrates in over 2 years. I have mostly SPS which are are thriving. I have a CA reactor becuase the demand on CA is high.

 

[jamesonwhiskey]

No comments?

We all know that messing around with a saltwater tank can sometimes become a huge burden. The nitrates, the testing, the tweaking this, changing that.

What has been working for you in regards to nitrates control?

I plan on buidling a reactor for nitrate media and a reactor for sulfur media. Will try one first and then the sulfur.

Thinking about a refugium but last time I had one stuff in it did not grow, for months and months...I suspect it was my light, not strong enough so I gave up on refugiums.

Would like to know what is working for you...

Get some Mangroves! Someone was selling them on here for only $5 each...

 

[d5332]

Hey, since starting this post I began a refugium and have diff macro in there and I have mangroves coming in from FL for $1.00 each, lets see how it goes.

Get some Mangroves! Someone was selling them on here for only $5 each...

 

[d5332]

Update on this thread!

Its now what, 7 months and still I cannot master the art of zero nitrates and low phosphates. I dont have any algae problems knock on wood but still I can't get nitrates down.

I have mangroves which are thriving, 25 of them but that must consume very little.

Chaeto died on me, turned white and did not recover.

Caluerpa is the only macro that survived and its growing but imo very slowly.

Been adding vodka for 4 months and no change, granted I was adding vodka by splitting the dose half in the morning and half at night, still not working. As of Monday of this week I am dripping vodka over a 12 hour period, I set a drip at night and by mid morning its empty, lets see how that goes.

Would be nice to finally keep a blue or red starfish and have it survive.

Most corals I've added are alive, snails are still alive, anemone (4 of them) still alive but still I know nitrates are high because I nothing delicate survives in my tank.

Has anyone mastered the art of low nitrates without having to perform weekly water changes?

 

[jackson6745]

Obviously your natural filtration is failing you. Time to step it up. There is nothing natural about maintaing saltwater critters in a glass box.
You need to buy a powerful skimmer and start running GFO like phosban in a reactor. Relying on macro algae is not enough to keep a low nutrient environment unless you have a very low bioload and or perform water changes very often.
Even if you setup a better nutrient export filtration system, you'll still have to do several LARGE water changes to get nitrates down. A skimmer will remove dissolved organics before they can convert to nitrates, but nitrates cannot be skimmed out. They must be diluted.

 

[jamesonwhiskey]

How high are your nitrates? 0 is not always optimal.

Are the starfishes the only things that have died? mMybe it's not due to the nitrates as snails would likely be affected as well..

 

[d5332]

I could not tell you how high or how low. I use a standard test kit and I have gotten color readings that are as low as 20 a day or two after a water change and as high as 80-100 the day before a water change.

I have 2 rbta, 1 lta, 2 flower anemones, snails, 1 sandsifting star fish, countless corals, crabs.

Naturally I have lost a coral or two, especifically a frogspawn and a branching hammer.

I cannot keep any linkia stars for the life of me, they all die no matter how I acclimate them, a week or two and bam dead!!!! so I dont date venture into anything that I know for a fact is hard to keep.

If not nitrates than what can it be?

How high are your nitrates? 0 is not always optimal.

Are the starfishes the only things that have died? mMybe it's not due to the nitrates as snails would likely be affected as well..

 

[jamesonwhiskey]

I could not tell you how high or how low. I use a standard test kit and I have gotten color readings that are as low as 20 a day or two after a water change and as high as 80-100 the day before a water change.

Ok, I misunderstood. I thought they were relatively low and you were trying to get them to 0.

How big is your tank? How often do you do a water change? How many gallons do you change out?

 

[d5332]

its a 120g
I change 32 gallons every 7 to 10 days.

Frankly, I cant do more than I already do, if I did I would be a slave to it...just would be nice to fill it up with half a dozen linkias, my son really enjoys them.

 

[jamesonwhiskey]

its a 120g
I change 32 gallons every 7 to 10 days.

Frankly, I cant do more than I already do, if I did I would be a slave to it...just would be nice to fill it up with half a dozen linkias, my son really enjoys them.

I also should have asked... are you using RO/DI water? Are you over-feeding maybe?

Unless your tank is very heavily stocked you're doing roughly a 25% water change every week which should suffice.

 

[d5332]

Def over stocked imo...like to see life...

Maybe I will increase it to 40% water changes and in a couple of months add another linkia and see what happens.

I also should have asked... are you using RO/DI water? Are you over-feeding maybe?

Unless your tank is very heavily stocked you're doing roughly a 25% water change every week which should suffice.

 

[d5332]

and yes on the RO/DI

 

[Zuska]

vodka

 

[Lenny718]

vodka

+1 vodka dosing if done correctly is an amazing way to reduce nitrate and po4

 

[jamesonwhiskey]

and yes on the RO/DI

Nitrates are definitely an issue, but i was reading about Linckia last night and they need specific gravity to be at 1.025 and very stable. What's your SG at and do you have an auto-top off?